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Intel
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IXP400 Software
Programmer’s Guide IXP400 Software Version 2.0 April 2005
Document Number: 252539, Revision: 007 183
Access-Layer Components:
Feature Control (IxFeatureCtrl) API 12
This chapter describes the Intel
®
IXP400 Software v2.0’s “Feature Control API” access-layer
component.
IxFeatureCtrl is a component that detects the capabilities of the Intel
®
IXP42X Product Line of
Network Processors and IXC1100 Control Plane Processor and Intel
®
IXP46X Product Line of
Network Processors. It provides a configurable software interface that can be used to simulate
different processors variants in the IXP42X product line and IXP46X product line.
12.1 What’s New
The following changes or additions have been made to the API:
• The function ixFeatureCtrlDeviceRead() has been added. This function may be called to
quickly determine whether the host processor is a IXP46X product line or IXP42X product
line processor.
• The function ixFeatureCtrlSoftwareBuildGet() has been added. This function refers to the
value set by the compiler flag to determine the type of device the software is built for. This is
useful for detecting if the IXP400 software was built for one specific product line versus
another product line.
• Support for the IXP46X product line has been added in all of the functions and register
definitions.
12.2 Overview
IxFeatureCtrl provides three major functions. First, functions are provided that read the hardware
capabilities of the processor. The IxFeatureCtrl API is also capable of disabling the peripherals or
components on the processor. Finally, the API provides a modifiable software configuration
structure that can be read or modified by other software components to determine the run-time
capabilities of a system.
12.3 Hardware Feature Control
Detecting and controlling the hardware features of the processor is performed using several
registers on the host processor. The registers include:
• CP15, Register 0, ID Register - This register contains product identification data. This
software component refers to this data as the
Product ID. The product ID is returned from the
function ixFeatureCtrlProductIdRead() and it contains the processor type, variant, and